


In A Name

by femganseyftw



Category: Glee
Genre: Canonical Character Death - Finn Hudson, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Introspection, Triple Drabble
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-05
Updated: 2020-10-05
Packaged: 2021-03-08 03:28:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 351
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26845156
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/femganseyftw/pseuds/femganseyftw
Summary: He is survived by his Mother, Carol, Step-Father, and Step-Brother.It wasn't until a while after Finn died that Kurt realised why that line in the obituary felt wrong.Or,Musings on brotherhood, loss, and the difference a prefix makes.
Relationships: Finn Hudson & Kurt Hummel
Comments: 2
Kudos: 17





	In A Name

**Author's Note:**

> yeah my first fic on the archive ever is glee fic in the year of our lord 2020 but cringe culture is dead and the hudmel bros relationship remains fantastic 10 years later bite me. basically inspired by the fact that afaik, once their parents r actually married, kurt and finn don't refer to each other as step-brothers at all. just brothers, which always struck me as a very particular choice that really says something, even if i know it was probably just the writers being lazy and thinking substituting their actually genuine relationship dynamic for 'theyre bros now' and then never giving them a substantial arc again was good enough. *grumps*
> 
> idk what this is and im posting it w/o actually reading it over so i apologise in advance but i had to get it out so.
> 
> comment, kudos, both, neither - do what u want. but i'd love a good old lj com style chat about the boys in the comments if anyone's up for it!
> 
> edit: intro revised on 24/01/21

Kurt Hummel, generally speaking, was someone who liked labels. He had always been this way — his childhood chest of drawers had been a meticulously organized thing, with neat little stickers beside each handle denoting the contents therein and colour coded shoe-boxes under his bed; his teenage Facebook Page had been a careful curation of his identities, interests and relationship, likes and disliked diligently tagged in alphabetical order, regular posts on his friends walls about glee club drama and pop culture and gay rights law, public relationships begun and ended in a perfectly ordered, visible, concrete way. For all he was a romantic at heart, Kurt liked things to be logical.

Nothing about Finn's death was logical. 

It wasn't logical that someone so young should be so very, very dead. It wasn't logical that his brother should have to be the one to go through his thoroughly _illogical_ filing system, managing perfectly fine until he found a spoiled attempt at a bank form with a terribly drawn doodle in the corner and started crying so hard he couldn't stand. 

It certainly wasn't logical the way Kurt had been staring at the obituary on the _McKinley Crier_ homepage for the last 3 mintues, fixating on a single line.

_"Hudson is survived by his mother, Carol, step-father, Burt Hummel, and step-brother, Kurt Hummel."_

_"step-brother, Kurt Hummel."_

_"step-brother"_

It was like the words were mocking him. There was nothing factually wrong with the sentence, it was true. Kurt and Finn were not related by blood. Finn was dead; Kurt was alive. And yet something about the title, _step-brother_ , rankled.

It didn't occur to Kurt until after Finn died that he'd only ever called him brother. 

Finn hadn't wanted to go against his brother in the election, Rachel had once told him, _good to see you, little brother, give me a hug before I go—_

Kurt hadn't realised it until then, not until after stupid, sentimental, wonderful Finn was dead and gone and in the ground, but for all the names they _had_ called each other over the years, "step-brother" had never been one of them.

**Author's Note:**

> ta dah. ending is weird and there are formatting errors but oh well. may fix this eventually who knows. thnx for reading xxxx


End file.
